How to Make Android Devices Secure

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During this year’s Blackchat conference, which is an event for the top security focused individuals in the world, a small exploit and its effects were demonstrated live by a well renowned hacker/jail breaker, Dan Rosenberg. The speaker basically showed that all Qualcomm were vulnerable. In the live demonstration, Mr. Rosenberg practically demonstrated how all devices, except the S5 and One M8, that use a Qualcomm SoC could easily have their bootloaders unlocked and attacked. While the exploit wasn’t revealed to the public, it did serve as a wake up call for many of us who believe their devices to be secure. So in lieu of the above stated discovery, here are some tips to make Android devices secure.

How to Make Android Devices Secure

Update your Device Regularly:

Unless you’re on a custom ROM, it’s always a good idea to update your phone regularly to the latest version of the OS released by your OEM. Often many minor bugs are removed in small patches by the OEMs as they surface. It’s also a great idea to install custom ROMs which are regularly maintained by their developers.

Keep your Bootloader Unlocked:

Rooting a device or installing a custom recovery is a great thing to do, most of these processes require you to have an unlocked bootloader. And while we won’t stop you from unlocking the full potential of your device, always remember to relock your bootloader once you’re done with whatever purpose you unlocked it for in the first place.

Be Extra Careful if you’re Rooted:

If you rock a rooted device, it’s always a great idea to be extra cautious after you’ve rooted your device as you practically have no safe nets for your device to fall back to after rooting. A great thing to do is to minimize the trusted apps in the SuperSU library and make all apps ask for permission whenever they want to perform a root level function on your device.

Never Flash Unknown Packages to your Device:

We shouldn’t even have to tell you this but alas common sense is not very common. Always double check the integrity of any package that you want to flash to your device via your device’s recovery. A great rule of thumb is to only download such packages from known developer sites such as XDA Developers where an active community warns you beforehand of any security risks a package might cause in your device.

Hope these simple tips will help you make Android devices secure, of course these tips in no way cover any damages done to your device by in app viruses or malwares. If you have some more tips, do share them with us in the comments section below and remember to stay safe!